Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 222 posts

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#201

Post by doktrin »

mjfl wrote: post #164
antod wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about others, I want my police force judged by their worst interactions rather than the majority of their interactions. I want the standards set high enough that all those bad things practically never happen rather than some small regular percentage of ongoing interactions.

You want to know what the problem is? No sane person would want to risk their life on a daily basis, wrestle people into their cars against their will on a daily basis, and be subject to the scrutiny you describe in your post, the hatred that is described in other posts, all for a policeman's salary. Literally no sane person would take that deal. Are you about to sign up to be a cop? Hell fucking no.

So you propose that we pay people to wrestle other people into cars against their will without subjecting them to scrutiny?

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#202

Post by doktrin »

paul7986 wrote: post #147

Really Baltimore's not as bad as the Wire, the riots and this story. As with any city it's best you avoid certain crime ridden areas, but other then that it's great! The low cost of living in the surrounding counties and Govt IT jobs where salary ranges from 120 to 250k are fairly plentiful. Also, traffic isnt too bad, there is a tech scene, a startup scene and good amount to do in and outside of the city.

I almost never say shit like this, but you are clearly speaking from a position of significant privilege. Obviously the cops aren't planting drugs on yuppies and tech workers, nor do you live in one of the many terribad parts of that city.

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#203

Post by solarengineer »

The Baltimore Police's official position on Transparency. https://www.baltimorepolice.org/transparency/overview

How does the audit culture work in the US? Are government agencies required to establish compliance with their stated positions (e.g. their position on Transparency) ?

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#204

Post by heedlessly2 »

King-Aaron wrote: post #162
southphillyman wrote: post #35

Baltimore police were stealing drugs from Baltimore dealers and selling the stolen drugs to dealers in Philadelphia. Hard to believe actions like that were taking place in the U.S. Sounds like something straight out of a Narcos episode.

> Hard to believe actions like that were taking place in the U.S. Interestingly, there's a globally-recognised phrase - "Only in America". This honestly seems like exactly the sort of corruption I'd expect to hear about in the US... There's just so much negative press about your government and police that a lot of people wouldn't expect it anywhere other than America.

>globally-recognised phrase - "Only in America"

That's an incredibly feeble-minded and edgy-childish thing to say.

Yet, if corruption happens in African, Middle Eastern, and Asian nationas nobody says "Only in Russia, China, or Saudi Arabia". That's just called normal.

There are European nations that are more corrupt than the USA.

https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_percept...

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#205

Post by Spooky23 »

lozenge wrote: post #173
Spooky23 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Police need to deal with every walk of life. I just served on a jury where the police were made to sound like a bunch of idiots by the defense because a person who appeared to be a witness wasn’t interrogated like you were.

Aggressively interrogate victims of crime, and you will find nobody wants to report crime or even cooperate with the police any more. That's far more damaging than missing the opportunity to prosecute a single drugs case, but it isn't measurable.

I didn't say drug case, because it wasn't relevant.

In my situation, a young woman was killed by a car. So a person is dead, and neither the victim's family and friends, the perpetrator's family or others will really know if justice were served.

That's not making excuses for corruption or the despicable conduct in Baltimore. But sometimes our perception of police conduct goes one way because we haven't walked a mile in their shoes, and don't have the big picture of how their world works.

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#206

Post by mjfl »

doktrin wrote: post #201
mjfl wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You want to know what the problem is? No sane person would want to risk their life on a daily basis, wrestle people into their cars against their will on a daily basis, and be subject to the scrutiny you describe in your post, the hatred that is described in other posts, all for a policeman's salary. Literally no sane person would take that deal. Are you about to sign up to be a cop? Hell fucking no.

So you propose that we pay people to wrestle other people into cars against their will without subjecting them to scrutiny?

I'm proposing that people like you don't think deeply enough about this problem to solve it.

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#207

Post by paulie_a »

anarazel wrote: post #170
paulie_a wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally think some police abuse should be considered treason and handled appropriately via those laws. Same for political corruption

Article three of the US constitution: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort." I'm not arguing that treason / corruption aren't worthy of increased focus, but your proposal doesn't seem to be it. There's also these pesky anti anti-corruption / pro "free speech" SCOTUS cases :(

I totally understand that currently it is not possible. My personal opinion is that the scope should be widened carefully in a limited way for aggregious public corruption. It's not an easy answer by any means but should be addressed with harsh penalties for some situations

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#208

Post by gt_ »

DrScump wrote: post #183
gt_ wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...according to a study conducted by the police department in question. I contested a ticket I received from an aggressive traffic cop in Portland for texting in a stand-still bumper to bumper traffic jam. He was on a motorcycle and saw me as he rode by on the sidewalk!!! This guy had incredible nerve. In court, I insisted we view the footage from his body camera, which could only be done if I first refuse his plea o…

Why had you not reviewed the recording (and other discovery) well before the court date?

If that was possible, I didn’t know it was. Is there a law about this? How would I go about that next time?

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#209

Post by anarazel »

paulie_a wrote: post #207
anarazel wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Article three of the US constitution: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort." I'm not arguing that treason / corruption aren't worthy of increased focus, but your proposal doesn't seem to be it. There's also these pesky anti anti-corruption / pro "free speech" SCOTUS cases :(

I totally understand that currently it is not possible. My personal opinion is that the scope should be widened carefully in a limited way for aggregious public corruption. It's not an easy answer by any means but should be addressed with harsh penalties for some situations

I don't understand why it makes sense to tie corruption to treason. It's a specifically defined thing in the constitution and it's already bandied about way to easily in a political manner.

Fixing corruption law (including SCOTUS precedent) is very hard, no need to add very debatable issues additionally.

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#210

Post by anigbrowl »

pandaman wrote: post #168
anigbrowl wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think corruption has much to do with "militarization" Not the corruption of individual cops on the street, but I bet there are some kickbacks given for purchase of heavy equipment. Don't want to get political about it but tear gas is pretty aggressive, and is ironically banned for use on the battlefield but it's considered totally normal for police to use it to control civilian populations.

"Ironically" hollow point bullets are banned for military too, yet I rather have police use those than AP rounds, which would fly through the perp, his car, his house, his block and end up in some bystander next street over. Would you rather police use napalm (not banned for military) than teargas? And, as the sibling said, police is not purchasing DoD equipment[1], if there is any corruption it could not be in form…

DoD isn't the only source of equipment. All that riot gear doesn't come cheap.
Post reply on HN